Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory – Chief R. Donald Maracle used his recent face-time with a federal minister to underscore a host of infrastructure funding shortfalls that have been impediments for improvements in housing, education, long-term care and water.

“Housing, safe drinking water, long-term care, adequate money to maintain roads and bridges are all basic to every community in Canada, so First Nations have the same needs,” Chief Maracle told our newsroom following Friday's meeting. “There is a huge historical gap with funding that the current government is trying to address.”

During her brief visit to the community, which included stops at the water treatment plant and community centre, Jane Philpott, the Minister of Indigenous Services, was presented with a package highlighting the needs of the Southern Ontario-based First Nations community.

Chief Maracle said Philpott was receptive to a host of concerns related to issues like water, housing, healthcare and subsidies to provide other social services.

“She's going to see what she can do and we're going to have a follow-up meeting in March,” Chief Maracle said.

Much of the talks centred on infrastructure funding shortfalls faced by First Nations communities in Southern Ontario.

“We talked about infrastructure and how Southern Ontario needs to get a fair share,” Chief Maracle said. “We talked about there being a northern priority and that the southern communities were left on a waiting list for addressing a number of outstanding issues. A lot of these southern communities are in need of waterline extensions and affordable housing.”

Chief Maracle also pointed out the funding formula's are outdated, with some of them dating back the 1980s.

“The subsidies provided to the band for the operation and maintenance of things like roads and buildings has not been kept up with inflationary cost,” he said. “She recognized that there is a huge budgetary issue.”

“We talked about the crisis in long-term care and that we need to build a facility,” he said. “We talked about getting funding from Indian Affairs for the water line extension to Shannonville, along with constructing a water tower.”

The chief took the time to underscore the “backlog in post-secondary education, so all the First Nations who need improvements in post-secondary education are not being funded. One of the purposes of the program is the increase the employability of this nation's people.”

Fire response was also discussed.

“She recognized that we do not have a fire hall,” Maracle said.

The housing crisis was not ignored during the minister stop here.

“I mentioned that a lot of the houses built in our community is because people have taken out mortgages with the band or the band has guaranteed loans for those mortgages, it's not because there has been a strong investment in housing on the part of the federal government,” Maracle said.

Philpott seem to take it all in and said she was “pleased to visit Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory and meet with Chief Maracle and council,” she said. “It is encouraging to see the progress being made in areas like community wellness and at the water treatment plant. I look forward to our continued partnership in working toward improved health and water services for the community.”

MP Mike Bossio, a member of the federal Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee, who facilitated and attended the meetings, said he was encouraged she decided to visit the riding early in her mandate.

“I wanted show there are challenges that exist in the south,” Bossio said. “I sometime feel the south gets overlooked. She's a new minister coming in and there are opportunities there.”

He said he wanted the minister to also see the positives happening in communities, like the Mohawk's, that in his eyes has strong governance and administration with the ability to manage their affairs.

“The government also announced that they're going to change the long-term funding mechanism, moving towards 10-year funding,” he said. “To me the Mohawks are the ideal community to put in place long-term stable funding, so they can identify priorities of where that funding needs to go.”